Hitting the Road...days 1 & 2

July 29 was departure day and loading the trailer was a riot.  Of course nothing fit like it needed to, it was HOT and people kept stopping by to say good-bye!  After a final few pictures by the waterfall in the backyard, we loaded up and were on our way.  It was kind of quiet in the suburban as we drove away as we all reflected on the full three years we spent in Fresno and in our awesome home. Of course, we only got as far as Visalia before I had to go potty J.

The day had been pretty uneventful – we made a few stops, let the dogs out to stretch their legs and spent our first night on the road in Kingman, AZ at a Holiday Inn Express.  We fed the dogs, put them to bed in their kennels on the trailer and hit the hay ourselves.  The next morning the “uneventful” became “eventful”…we finished breakfast and John started taking our luggage out to load.  There was a lady hanging out by the dog kennels and she proceeded to go on a rampage about how unkind we were to our dogs by hauling them in the heat on a trailer – she went so far as to call the police, but then vanished before the police arrived.  I was unaware of all this but finally ventured outside to see what was up when he was gone for so long, and at this point a policeman was there talking to John.  After seeing that our dogs were healthy, being well-taken care of, he commented to John that “people in Kingman take their animal seriously” with a smile J. 

So we loaded everything up and went over to the gas station to fill up.  I went inside to get coffee and when I came out I noticed an older gentleman peering into the dog kennels. I thought, oh no – here we go again…but he was just complimenting us on how nice our dogs were!  He and a friend were on a motorcycle jaunt across the country and we had a nice visit with them before hitting the road.

We decided to make a stop at Bearizona – a very cool drive-through wildlife park.  We unhooked the trailer, drove through and saw the sights – bears & bear cubs, bighorn sheep, wolves and bison.  It was really cool and a nice break from the drive.  We got back on the road and as we checked the weather we realized that we might end up driving through a rainstorm…and sure enough, we did!  Dallas’ kennel was on the side where the rain was blowing and although she got pretty wet, I think she enjoyed it since it cooled her off!  That night we stayed in Santa Rosa, NM and fortunately, we did not encounter any crazy animal people.